Let’s stretch our mathematical muscles this month:
You encounter a flock of exactly 100 small sandpipers; careful inspection proves that they are all of the same species. On a whim, you count the toes, coming up with an absolutely accurate total of 602. What is the species?
Leave your answer as a comment below. The best correct answer and the wittiest incorrect answer will win their authors a WINGS cap.
Sanderlings. The two “extra” toes were hind toes on a Sanderling x Dunlin hybrid. Well, I guess it could have been a different mix, but I found a mention of a Sanderling x Dunlin that had hind toes.
99 Sanderlings, and one misidentified Dunlin.
Sanderling perhaps?
Recognizing the twisted (and kindred) senses of humor that are responsible for these questions, I was sure I had this one in the bag. “Of course!” I exclaimed to no one in particular; “It’s Cox’s Sandpiper (Calidris paramelanotos).” Surely some wag in the Wings office has incorrectly translated the scientific name as “pair of black toes.” 600 + “pair of black toes” = 602. I could feel the warmth of that Wings cap on my head already. But then I realized that Cox’s Sandpiper has four toes on each foot (drat) and that, in all likelihood, nobody has ever seen 100 Cox’s Sandpipers standing together, anyway. So, back to the Sanderling theory (one bird = six toes) plus some devilish pun or long-forgotten Shakespearean reference that would account for the two extra ones.